Waiting to read the next part of that book must have been hard. XD Although I really hope I never need that sort of needle work.

I've tried to steer-clear of self-diagnosis for the most part. I saw one feller in a clinic years ago and he gave me the basic GERD guidelines, when that chronic cough that's listed in the 'if left untreated' symptoms started in. Six months of continuous hacking had me taken in to see what was wrong and he kept asking if I'd had a lot of heartburn lately. Along with these guidelines on what to generally avoid he also mentioned that the reason for the cough was acid washing into my lungs, although in regards to the guidelines themselves he didn't tell me exactly what they related to, so I tried to find out more about what to use and follow and stumbled upon that - the only perfect fit. For the most part, if I follow those rules I do alright - the hard part is following them.

The ulcer was mostly my mother's idea after I hurled up blood one day and for the most part I ignored it for years. What has me thinking of it now is that the baby sis has the exact same tummy trouble as me - letter for letter, if mildly less severe (and has her whole life) - and was officially diagnosed. I can officially testify to ulcers being exacerbated by stress though, if that is the case! I know it gets a lot worse as I get tense. I'm glad it's mainly a bacterial thing, all the same, it makes it seem much less frightening.

Bonus for the night: I may have accidentally napped through a call from this clinic place I was waiting for paperwork on - all I know is it was some sort of unknown number. I may have to go back in now and see what's going on there, because from what I know of they didn't leave a voice mail (and yet, even though when I check the inbox I get a zero new messages recording, my new voice mail icon refuses to leave my phone)

Yup, anytime blood comes out of somewhere it's not supposed to, a doctor visit is nice to make sure it's not serious. Whatever the problem is, I definitely hope it's in one of those "easily fixable" bacteria columns, like Strep. Who knows? Maybe they'll be able to cure your cough as well, and then you'll be like "why didn't I go sooner??"

We don't really do doctors here, although that's mainly because of money. I waaaas... Only just nineteen I think when I had the blood first show up? And I'm 24 now. Have had this cough forrr I think three or so years now as well, honestly, but it goes away when I strictly stick with that GERD 'avoid these things' list. Used to I'd worry that if I didn't manage to get a proper handle on it enough acid would wash into my lungs to corrode them beyond repair.

Of course I didn't know about the potential for throat cancer when he handed me said 'avoid these things' list all those years ago, either.

But now it's someone else's turn in the spotlight - after all, Tal knows all about ulcers and other (much worse) tummy issues. How're the baby whales, Kyra, and is work still busy-adjusting for ya Foxxy - and I think you're fully and rightly Mrs. Dragon now, if I recall correctly? Have a good honeymoon? And the little tyke, y'all settled in alright now Keira? Been a while since we heard about you, SunBlind. You doing okay? You finally getting to rest a little bit, miss go-go-go Vines? <3

Work is kinda crazy for me. A few years ago our small company was a acquired by a really big one and now they're looking at the money we bring and say, well it's nice you're making profit and consistently so, but we make in a day what your group makes in a year, so we'd like to see some improvements.

So we're trying to find ways to become a bigger, more integral part of our parent company. This means taking on any task even remotely related to our original product. So instead of our one main project we have divided our group into four...while at the same time expecting to get everything out on time, and with the same quality.

That in itself isn't so much a problem, but as the managers try to figure out who is going to work on what they keep changing their minds every few days as to what I should be working on. So something that was well and clearly decided to be unimportant, suddenly becomes critical and needs to be done ASAP. For example one project we've been putting off sinc 2007 since it would take too long to do, they suddenly decide we can get it done in 2 weeks! 2 weeks later the thing still doesn't run

At least at the moment there is no threat of job loss, in fact it is more likely we'd simply be reassigned to more money generating projects and our product dropped. We just didn't want our team broken up, the parent copy already reassigned four of our people (which already had a big impact as we only had about 30 to start with)

Anyhoo, aside from a severe lack of excercise and energy, I'm otherwise not dealing with the kinds of issues you guys are ^_^ Though if I don't start getting some exercise soon I probably will start getting more serious issues. Like for some reason my left leg tends to feel...well you know that restless leg thing? Well I used to get it at night every now and then, now I get it even during the day. It doesn't happen if I do some walking during the day so I should probably do more of that

Hope everyone else is dealing with their issues! I must admit, being in Canada, if blood starts coming out of orrifices where it isn't supposed to, I just run to my doctor and not worry about the money. On the other hand our taxes are way higher (so you pay for it anyway, just over time), and there aren't enough family doctors to go around, and people sometimes die because emergency rooms are overcrowded and underfunded. I guess there are pros and cons to every system.

The little ones are great! They are so cute to watch, their learning new things all the time. example swimming upside down, a 1st there would try and tip over and then decide no and later be playing with another calf and do it and be like cool, flip right side up and try then again to flip upside down and nope didn't work lol. Cute things, learning to squirt water is too cute to watch.

Work besides watching the little ones, been very very very very hot!!! We finally got some much needed rain! Love rain and cool weather!! Go Rain, go! As for amount of time workings, i been working lots, on a 8 day week right now then a day off, that is just how the schedule worked out. Loving every minute of it though, weekends are usually crazy but with rain was nice and quiet.

I am really trying to get to role play but by the time I get home, i am dead tired and I do have a few started but they are in my word document till done. I have wednesday off so maybe i get some time there.